Autopsy on Actor Is Inconclusive as Calls for Help Are Revealed

The cause of the actor Heath Ledger’s death could take two weeks to determine, the New York City medical examiner’s office said on Wednesday. An autopsy was conducted Wednesday morning, but the results were inconclusive and blood and tissue tests need to be completed, said Ellen Borakove, the spokeswoman for the office.

Other details surrounding Mr. Ledger’s death emerged on Wednesday as rumor and speculation swirled. Police officials said that the masseuse who discovered Mr. Ledger unconscious told them that she made two phone calls to the actress Mary-Kate Olsen, a friend of Mr. Ledger’s, moments before she called 911.

Mr. Ledger, 28, the Australian-born star of “Brokeback Mountain,” was found dead on Tuesday afternoon in bed in his apartment in SoHo, with a bottle of prescription sleeping pills nearby.

Although the police said on Wednesday that a rolled-up $20 bill was also found, they said that tests of the bill found no trace of drugs and that they had turned up no illegal drugs anywhere in the apartment. Mr. Ledger left no suicide note, the police have said.

The authorities found six different types of prescription drugs in Mr. Ledger’s apartment, including sleeping pills and antianxiety medicine, according to a law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. Three of the drugs were prescribed in Europe, said the official, who noted that Mr. Ledger had recently returned to the United States from London.

According to the police, the masseuse who found Mr. Ledger on Tuesday, Diana Wolozin, arrived at Mr. Ledger’s apartment, at 421 Broome Street, about 2:45 p.m. to give him a massage and saw his bedroom door closed.

When he had not emerged by around 3 p.m., she called his cellphone, got no answer and entered the bedroom, where she saw him in bed.

She went to the closet, took out a massage table and started to set it up near his bed, the police said. Then she went over to Mr. Ledger and shook him, but got no response. Using his cellphone, she pressed a speed-dial button and called the 21-year-old Ms. Olsen, who she knew was a friend of Mr. Ledger’s, to ask for help.

According to the authorities, Ms. Wolozin told Ms. Olsen, who was in California, that Mr. Ledger was unconscious. Ms. Olsen said she would call private security people she knew in New York.

Ms. Wolozin again shook Mr. Ledger, called Ms. Olsen a second time, and said she feared Mr. Ledger might be dead and would call 911.

Ms. Wolozin called 911 at 3:26 p.m. to say that Mr. Ledger was not breathing. The call was made less than 15 minutes after she first saw him in bed and only a few moments after the first call to Ms. Olsen. The 911 operator urged Ms. Wolozin to try to revive Mr. Ledger, but Ms. Wolozin’s efforts were not successful.

Emergency medical workers arrived at 3:33 p.m., at almost exactly the same moment as a private security guard summoned by Ms. Olsen. The medical workers moved Mr. Ledger’s body to the floor and then used a defibrillator and CPR, to no avail. He was pronounced dead at 3:36 p.m. By that point, two other private security guards summoned by Ms. Olsen had arrived, as had police officers.

Photo

A makeshift memorial cropped up outside Heath Ledgers apartment in SoHo on Wednesday, a day after he was found dead in bed there.Credit
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Mr. Ledger had been snoring around 1 p.m. when a housekeeper, Teresa Solomon, arrived at the apartment, she told the police. Ms. Solomon went into Mr. Ledger’s bedroom to change a light bulb in an adjacent bathroom and saw Mr. Ledger face-down on the bed.

The police said that all five witnesses — Ms. Solomon, Ms. Wolozin, and the three guards summoned by Ms. Olsen — were cooperating with the authorities.

The police said they could not immediately say if Ms. Wolozin was a licensed masseuse. There is no Diana Wolozin listed in the state database of licensed massage therapists. It is a felony to practice massage without a license in New York.

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After the two-hour autopsy at the medical examiner’s headquarters Wednesday, Ms. Borakove, the spokeswoman for the office, said that the cause of death was still unclear.

“If you have no apparent cause, you have to do further testing,” she said. The two types of tests that still have to be performed include toxicology, which examines the adverse effects of chemicals in the bloodstream, and histology, in which thin slices of tissue are analyzed by pathologists.

“Toxicology is done on blood and urine and what is in the stomach contents,” Ms. Borakove said. “It does not take one day. It takes 10 days to two weeks.”

It is the medical examiner’s office that will ultimately determine whether Mr. Ledger died of suicide, natural causes, accident or foul play. The police have said that there is no evidence of foul play and no note or any other obvious evidence pointing toward suicide.

Mr. Ledger, whose breakthrough role as a gay cowboy in the 2005 movie “Brokeback Mountain” earned him a nomination for an Academy Award, moved to SoHo sometime after he separated last summer from his companion, the actress Michelle Williams, and left the town house they and their 2-year-old daughter shared in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

He led a high-visibility life in Manhattan, and was often spotted at clubs and bars with actresses and models.

Mr. Ledger’s death has drawn international attention and even affected President Bush’s schedule. Out of deference to Mr. Ledger, the president postponed an appearance Wednesday to promote an advertising campaign on preventing prescription drug abuse, Reuters reported.

“We did not want anyone to think we were trying to link into that story in any way,” said Dana Perino, his spokeswoman.

Outside Mr. Ledger’s home in SoHo and his former residence in Brooklyn, news crews clustered for a second day and mourners and fans trickled by to leave flowers or notes.

Ms. Williams returned to the Brooklyn house shortly before 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

On the doorstep was a letter taped to a teddy bear, signed by the Melendez family.

“Stay strong,” the note said. “Just remember he loved you and your baby very much.”

Sewell Chan and Christian Hansen contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Autopsy on Actor Is Inconclusive As Calls for Help Are Revealed. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe